Windows old on Wim7

New Member

Trying to do a back up to a portable HD 250 GB I'm told insufficent room!
Looking at Windows I see files Windows Old that is 63 GB and Windows Old 000 that is 36 GB in size - can someone enlighten me on these, what they are they for? are they necessary? and can they be got rid of?

New Member

win old is just the stuff from the old windows, the one you had before you did the rc install, you can delete the folder completely if you'd like, any "old" file is from previous installation and is basically a backup.

New Member

New Member

are you sure there was nothing on the hdd or partition you installed on? mine did not have that until I did an install over xp I was using, and there was no issue of me deleting it. What I would do is see exactly what it in the old windows file and see if there is anything that is actually necessary.

New Member

The windows.old folder should only show up if you have used the upgrade install option. Did you boot to the DVD and format the drive first?
Anyways, the safest way to remove that folder is to right click the C: drive and choose properties. Then run the disk cleanup function. It should find the windows.old folder and give you the option to remove it. It will have no effect on Windows 7 removing this.

This is the reason I delete and reformat the partition I'm installing Win 7 on before installing.
Since I'm dual booting (multibooting is more accurate since I have several Linux distros) with XP I use diskmgmt to do the format.

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The W7 installer does that when you do a clean install over an existing Windows Installation. Vista does the same thing. It does this in case there is something you don't want to lose.

First check the files in Windows.old to see if there is anything you want to keep. If there is Cut and paste it to wherever you want it. Then call up "Disk Cleanup" in the Accessories - System Tools menu. Have it scan your W7 drive. After it does that click on "Clean up system files" and have it scan the drive again. One of the things you can delete there is Windows.old. Put a check mark there and tell it to delete it. It'll get rid of it for you.

If you just try to delete it Windows will stop you from doing it. You have to do it through "Disk cleanup"

Update: I forgot to mention that I think Disk Cleanup calls it "Previous Windows Version" instead of Windows.old. What can I say? When I turned into an old man I developed a bad case of CRS ( Can't Remember S*** ).

New Member

The W7 installer does that when you do a clean install over an existing Windows Installation. Vista does the same thing. It does this in case there is something you don't want to lose.

First check the files in Windows.old to see if there is anything you want to keep. If there is Cut and paste it to wherever you want it. Then call up "Disk Cleanup" in the Accessories - System Tools menu. Have it scan your W7 drive. After it does that click on "Clean up system files" and have it scan the drive again. One of the things you can delete there is Windows.old. Put a check mark there and tell it to delete it. It'll get rid of it for you.

If you just try to delete it Windows will stop you from doing it. You have to do it through "Disk cleanup"

Update: I forgot to mention that I think Disk Cleanup calls it "Previous Windows Version" instead of Windows.old. What can I say? When I turned into an old man I developed a bad case of CRS ( Can't Remember S*** ).